It Turns Out It Is Hard To Prove Whether Cashless Welfare Cards Actually Help People

    The government relied on data showing ambulance callouts had dropped, but they had in fact increased.

    The federal government is being called on to abandon its expanded trial of cashless debit cards for welfare recipients after a report found that the data relied on to expand the trial was less than reliable.

    The $18 million cashless welfare card trial commenced in 2016 in the remote communities of Ceduna and East Kimberley, where the trial overwhelmingly affected Indigenous Australians.

    The trial aimed to gauge whether putting up to 80% of someone's welfare payment on to a card that cannot be used to buy alcohol or to gamble with would impact alcoholism, drug use and/or gambling.

    The government announced last year that the trial would be extended for another 12 months, and that it would be expanded to the Goldfields region of WA, and the Bundaberg and Hervey Bay regions in Queensland.

    Currently, however, the trial has been restricted to the two initial sites, and the Goldfields, until the end of June next year.

    Part of the justification for the expansion was that feedback on the trial provided to the government had found it to be working. But an auditor-general's report released this week by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has cast doubt on whether that data was reliable.

    For example, in examining crime and gambling statistics, the only data that was available was for an area much larger than Ceduna, meaning 60% of the population captured was not in the trial area.

    The Department of Social Services told the social services minister Dan Tehan that there had been a decline in the number of pick-ups by local police patrols in the Kununurra Miriwoong community from April to May 2016, but that did not account for seasonality and didn't measure pick-ups for alcohol.

    ANAO found that there had been a consistent decline in the pick-ups for alcohol over time, not just limited to the trial period, down from 61.7% in April to August 2014 to 36.1% from April to August 2016.

    The government was also told there had been a decrease in the call-outs for ambulance services in September 2016 compared to September 2015. But when ANAO analysed this, it found that there had in fact been a 17% increase in call-outs from April to October 2016 compared to the same time in the previous 12 months.

    It was also reported that school attendance had improved in the areas, however ANAO found that while attendance was fairly stable for non-Indigenous students, there was a 1.7% decline in attendance for Indigenous students since the trial was implemented.

    ANAO found it was "difficult to conclude" whether there had been a reduction in social harm as a result of the cashless welfare card.

    Labor's shadow minister for social services Linda Burney said that while Labor supports the trials continuing in Ceduna and the East Kimberley, the trials should not be expanded.

    Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the trials should end.

    "It can’t be properly demonstrated that social harm has been reduced," she said in a statement. "I urge the Labor party and crossbench to support my disallowance motion that would stop the trials in Ceduna, the Goldfields and the East Kimberley in their tracks.

    “We need to be resourcing strong wrap around services for those struggling with drug, alcohol or gambling addiction in Australia. It needs to be treated like a health issue, time and again punitive measures like income management have failed in reducing harm and will continue to do so."

    Tehan defended the trial, saying that it was on track, and the government would implement all recommendations proposed by ANAO.

    "Independent evaluation by Orima Research found gambling, alcohol and drug consumption were reduced in Ceduna and East Kimberley," he said. "This finding was supported by feedback from service providers and the communities.

    “The Cashless Debit Card trial is an important element of the government’s work to reduce welfare-funded social harm, and to help Australians escape welfare dependency."